Signature Living Announces Trebling Pre-tax Profits

Signature Living have gone from strength to strength in the past 12 months, opening and purchasing numerous developments across the country, expanding into new divisions of business and becoming internationally recognised.

I am proud to announce that our success has been reflected in our pre-tax profits which have today been revealed at £5.8m in the year to 1 April 2016, highlighting an increase of 262% in one year.

Originally founded as a single apartment in Liverpool city centre in 2008, myself and the team have worked tirelessly over the past nine years to make Signature Living a success. We offer guests something different, fun and unusual, telling a story within every hotel, bar and restaurant which simply can’t be found elsewhere.

Liverpool was where Signature Living was born and I am thrilled that we have transformed the accommodation market in the city, yet we are ready for the next challenge of taking our brand nationwide.

Over the past couple of years, we have been making the steps to take Signature into the residential and office market. We have four residential developments in Liverpool; Daniel House, 60 Old Hall Street, West Africa House and Bankfield as well as one residential development in Manchester, Signature Mill.

Our move into co-working space has been more recent with Signature Works launching earlier this year and our first offices set to open in the coming months. There is a huge market in Liverpool for luxury co-working space which has revolutionised how small, large and independent business work, yet as a city we have been slow to embrace it. Signature Works operates three key city centre locations for co-working space including Arthouse, the Bling Bling Building and 60 Old Hall Street.

We have secured investment into each new sector Signature has branched into whilst continuing to grow our hotel offering and providing investors with a stable and impressive return on each development.

Our way of doing things may be a little extraordinary but the results released today highlight that our approach is working. On behalf of myself, company stakeholders, staff members and investors, we are delighted. We are extremely proud of these results and know that each area of the business has played a big factor in helping us to achieve this.

With new sites recently purchased in Belfast, Preston and Liverpool, the expansion of our hotel portfolio is hugely exciting. For the financial year of 2016/17 we expect to again surpass our projected expectations which for this period lie at £20 million.

We have a real passion for heritage developments and bringing unused, historic buildings back to life. Our first heritage development was in 2013 when we made our move into the mainstream hotel market, transforming the former White Star Line headquarters into an opulent, luxury hotel. 30 James Street – Home of the Titanic celebrates the history of the shipping company and all that was associated with it, bringing a plethora of visitors to the city throughout the year.

We recently unveiled the first phase of The Exchange Hotel, which truly is a remarkable building. After many years of dereliction and several failed attempts to revive this magnificent piece of history, we purchased it just last year and have worked tirelessly to bring it back to life. Although the first phase is complete, there is still a long way to go yet we have hopeful ambitions that the hotel will be fully operational by January 2018.

We recently purchased two new heritage sites in Belfast: the iconic Crumlin Road Courthouse and the Scottish Mutual Building. Our move into the Belfast market is much needed and the city is on the cusp of a fantastic resurgence. Increased tourism paired with excellent transport links, rich history and diverse entertainment makes Belfast the natural next step for myself and Signature Living.

I am hugely excited about our plans for the future and look forward to continuing to revive iconic buildings whilst bringing a plethora of hotels, restaurants, bars and residential spaces to cities across the UK. You can read further media coverage of this story on The Caterer, Liverpool Echo, InsiderMedia and BDaily.

Lawrence Kenwright

Lawrence Kenwright is a Hotel operator and developer based in Liverpool city centre. When not redeveloping old icon buildings he likes to spend time with his family